Cruelty and neglect are some of the most heart wrenching complaints that the Field Services Department handles. On a daily basis we receive neglect and cruelty complaints ranging from: no shelter being provided on a hot or rainy day to no clean water bowls to an animal being tortured and beaten.

As a law enforcement agency we take animal cruelty investigations very seriously. We will investigate these reports and will take the appropriate action required. If you suspect animal cruelty or neglect please contact our office at (909) 466-7387 ext. 2084 or e-mail as soon as possible. The longer you wait to see if the situation improves is one more day that the animal is left in poor conditions or under the care of a potentially abusive owner.  

When you contact our office a dispatcher will ask you a series of questions. All these questions are necessary for our initial investigation. The more information you provide to the dispatcher at the time of the call, the more information the Field Services Officer will have when they arrive on scene to investigate the compliant.

Our dispatcher will ask you for your name, address and phone number. This is kept confidential with our department and would be used by our Field Services Officers for additional investigative purposes.  It is important for us to have contact information for our reporting parties so we can follow up with them and conduct our investigations.

The dispatcher will also ask you for the animal owner’s address and a description of the animal and the type of cruelty you are witnessing.  You will be asked to describe details to the dispatcher and how you are witnessing this. The dispatcher needs to ask these questions in detail so the Field Services Officer responding to the scene are prepared and have the necessary information to conduct the best possible investigation.

Samples of questions would be:

• How long have you observed this?
• Can you see the animal?
• Can you describe the injuries that the animal has?
• Have you seen anyone come to the property?

Each investigation for cruelty and neglect is unique and is investigated that way. We will focus on education in situations that require only a little advisement and education on the part of the dog owner (shelter needs to be provided at all times for your pet) or we will take enforcement action and issue citations (animals locked in a vehicle on a hot day), file charges (misdemeanor animal cruelty) and in some extreme cases contact the police department and have the owner taken into custody (for severe and extreme cases of neglect and cruelty such as mutilation and torture of animals).